Go ahead. Okay. Welcome to our July 14th meeting. As always, I will read our public participation. Uh the Hatfield Select Board Welcomes everyone to its meetings and all public meetings of the town hall. All regular and special meetings of the boards and
committees of the town of Hatfield shall be open to public and shall confirm to the open meeting law. Executive sessions are closed to the public and will be held only as prescribed by the statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is important to recognize that the open
meeting law affords the ability to listen to the proceedings but not necessarily participate during meetings of the select board. An attempt will be made to find a balance between hearing from members of the community and conducting the required business of the
Hackwood select board. for the public's information. This meeting is being recorded and I will call this meeting to order and move to announcements. I'd first like to announce the hiring of our new DPW director, Marlo Warner, who is
here this evening. And I have John swing the camera around and say hi to Marlo. Marlo comes as a uh DPW director from another town. So we he will bring a lot of experience and expertise to Hatfield and we look forward to him working with
us. So thank you to Hatfield Marlo. Um and later I think we'll go over the DPW issues and and not only is he DP director, he's also uh manager of facilities. So he's wearing a couple different hats under announcements. The
channel 15 is still experiencing trouble. That's a Comcast issue. Uh I have no update on when Comcast will have channel 15 back, but for now we'll be streaming as always with with John. Uh
the the cable for the new TV studio has been run over to here and it's just getting everything hooked up. I'd like to say thank you to DPW, uh Tony, Dwayne, and Kenny for jumping in on a sewer pipe break last week. They
they repaired it, got it done within a a couple days. Uh so thank you for jumping on that emergency. Uh the the heat is excessive. Uh try to visit the COA. It has a cooling center, but check with the
COA for times available for the cooling center. They do have a nice library down there and and board games. And the last comment I have is the summer series concert continues and it will be another
one uh this Friday I believe, but always check the town of Hatfield website to check for news on the concert and updates. Do my colleagues have any announcements? Luke, the only thing I was going to say again, thank you to the DPW for handling that sewer break and getting the road back
open in a timely manner? That's all I have. Okay, Greg. I'm good. Okay, with that said, under announcements, is there anybody here for public forum? With no one here for public forum, uh we
will move to our minutes. If I have a motion on the minutes, I'll make a motion to approve of the June 24th, 2025 meeting minutes. Second. A motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? No. Uh motion. All in favor?
I. Motion carries. Okay, those would be the minutes. Uh the next part of posted business would be topic one, which is the me memorandum of understanding for our Franklin County solid waste
management district. We've had this for a number of years. Uh it helps save us some money. uh and it's basically the uh regarding hauling and disposal of sledge from the wastewater treatment plant and
as you know costs have risen and I think uh the location of where they now have to move the sledge has changed so they're traveling even further away to remove it so we just can't help with the cost but being with the Franklin County
Solid Waste Management District we do save a few dollars. Anybody have any comments from you on this? No, I think And with that said, do I have a motion on it? I'll make a motion to approve the Franklin County solid waste management agreement.
Second. Motion made. Motion second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Okay. Motion carries. Topic two is the uh FY26 Veteran Service contract with Northampton. As you know,
we lost Jerry uh and it's been hard to find someone to fill those shoes, but Northampton Veteran Service has jumped in to uh help us out over the last few years. So, they provided us another contract. I don't know if you have any
update on this contract or No. Uh they they gave us uh what we could um predict for costs uh earlier this year. Those were budgeted for. So, this isn't uh anything different from what we thought would be happening. Uh the cost did increase as as you can
imagine just for uh for staffing and for other other things. They also were helpful in just letting us know what to to budget for for uh veterans benefits for this year. But, you know, they they take care of uh anything that that we need for for veteran services. And so far, we've heard that that people are
getting along fine with uh with getting the help that they need from Northampton. So, this will be our second year doing this. So, any uh motion on this? I'll make a motion to approve the veteran services contract with Northampton. Second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any
discussion? All in favor? Motion carries. Uh topic three would be the appointment of Ronald Warren as alternate building commissioner. Any concern on this from my colleagues?
No. it looks like is holds all of his required and then some credentials as well as has served for as a building inspector in multiple other towns. So I think um
I'm happy that Kyle has a backup because he can't always do everything. So I have no problem with this and I think this is great. Okay. I I want to thank him for stepping up to be the assistant building
commissioner. Uh do I have a motion on this? I'll make a motion to appoint Ronald Lauren as alternate building commissioner. Second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I.
Motion carries. Topic four we can't do until 6:00 because that's a public hearing. So I will move to topic five on the wastewater treatment plane plant change order two. Do we have any update
on on this? I don't know. We do have David Prickard here with us this evening. I mean David's been with us this town for quite a few years and has helped us in many ways with our water rates, our sewer rates and also our our
plant. So, I don't know if you want to make a comment or Andrew wants to make a comment. Well, I'm happy to get started just with the information that was given to us by DPC uh and uh the folks working on this project. If there are further questions, we get into the weeds, then I will absolutely throw things over to Dave. Um
so, this is a pretty normal change order. Just just comes out in the the the line of of uh doing this work. Uh this is a change order that would add inline cleanouts the four down spouts that are currently included in the contract uh pricing for the new
headworks building. So the cleanouts are going to provide uh us with an accessible way to maintain and service the roof leader system over time. Uh this is something that our engineers uh recommend uh adopting because it's proactive change to support the long-term system reliability and the
ease of maintaining it. Helps with the maintenance. Uh so this is um it's it's the change order is for um uh $11,000 $11,457. It's a relatively small change. Um and
it can be approved just by the select board. So I' I'd recommend uh going forward with this. Um again, if there's more questions and Dave can definitely answer. Okay. any I mean I have some questions with the amount of labor involved to install $300
worth of PVC. Um I mean it's $4,100 in labor to install a cleanout. It just seems rather excessive. Just curious where they're getting that number from.
Yeah, I I' I'd imagine just the work is probably more complicated and technical than the the materials themselves, but I don't know if Dave has anything to to say to this. Yeah, thanks. Uh Dave Pricker with DPC Engineering. Um I'm a bit embarrassed to
say that I came prepared tonight to talk about the water and sewer rates and I didn't know that that was even on the agenda. Um, but just by way of background, I can speak anecdotally that was a change order that uh was brought up by the operations staff uh to to to
Kenny's point and the contractor. Uh relative to the details, uh these are pretty frustrating, Luke, on these chapter 149 jobs uh with all of the trades and and how things work. Um I'd have to say that I'd have to go back in and really drill into to look at it.
What I can say macroscopically is that all of the work that's considered at this point were into the to the grant. Um so it isn't an additional cost to the town. Um we could certainly go back and take a look. Um, historically when we've
had PCOS's come up, we've kind of gone over them at staff level. Um, and then during the monthly meetings and, um, you know, I certainly if if we want to add another invite to the monthly meetings, we'd, uh, we'd welcome that if
you're available when we do that. But, um, I don't know if the the board might consider authorizing Andrew to go back and try to negotiate more favorable terms. Um, it could be a little bit of an endless
doop. And I I don't discount the fact that $11,000 is typically a lot of money for for such a small scope of work, but it's uh as these projects go, a pretty small um change order.
I don't think I've answered your detailed questions and I honestly haven't drilled into that one myself. No, I mean just professionally I've installed a lot of cleanouts and usually takes a couple guys maybe a couple hours to do it as long as there's not, you
know, crazy adverse conditions. And um it just seems that 40 man hours and one day's of work with a a operator, a general foreman, and two skilled laborers to complete the task.
it just seems pretty darn excessive in in in my opinion. Um, you know, obviously not knowing exactly where they're working is something to consider, but um it it does it just seems very high. But
happy to go back and negotiate if that's something that the board's interested in. Um, or maybe it can be explained to us. We can certainly ask for explanation. That would be that would be a great start. I just, you know, I've been involved in other projects of, you know, of larger
scope and change orders is typically where a lot of contractors like to slide a little extra money in there to help absorb some costs. And like if we were talking, if this was a 50/50 split between materials and and labor, I
probably wouldn't have as much of a problem with it. But it's $300 of parts, $36.75 and41.45 of labor for four guys to put in a cleanout. It's just it seems very excessive. So I'm not comfortable with it.
Okay, we can go back, right, and we can and get an answer. Maybe there's more to it. There absolutely could be and there could be something I'm not understanding. And that's fair. I'll fully And this won't and by not not voting for this, it's not going to impact the project that much. shouldn't set us back, I don't think. But
no, I suspect it's not like of critical importance relative to the schedule, but relative to kind of where the site work is. I wouldn't want to delay it for a couple of months. Another option would be to authorize the work on a time of material basis and just track things. That's another way that you can you can
do things. But be comfortable with that. I'd be more comfortable with making I can make myself available to come and meet whether it's on-site or in a in a meeting of some sort to be able to get some better explanation. Um, if that's agreeable. If not, then I
I mean I mean I I have no problem with you coming in and doing that. I don't know if if we can authorize it based on on that. I mean that's that's one way, right? We can say if after the meeting
or during a meeting meet MO meets if they negotiate something we authorize it or should we wait on that? You could do that. You you could say you know uh pending a meeting and further explanation um you would authorize
supporting the change order. Um you'd still have to sign it. So I think that's fine. Well would waiting another month be thrown off by that much? or if we find out that it would be a huge problem, we could set up a special meeting, too, if you needed to.
Maybe you can connect Luke and Yeah, Ben on site every day. Yeah. All right. I'll connect Luke and want to make some kind of motion. I mean, you meet with them and then if if we get a good explanation and you're happy with it, then we could meet Yeah. special meeting
Friday or something. A quick meeting and that'd be easy. And get it authorized so we don't delay the project. I'm comfortable with that. Fair enough. Okay. So, we'll move on to topic six. Topic six is contract for construction
services between the town of Hatfield and Capital Carpet and Flooring Specialist. Very good. So, this is uh a contract that would be for the um removal and replacement of the floors, the carpets at Smith Academy. Um as you know, this
project was approved uh at town meeting. Uh there was a capital transfer for $75,000. Uh early budgets for this project were at $85,000. So, we were well covered uh between the the money that was
transferred um of the 75 and a $40,000 uh from uh Treeworks uh that we had planned to use for this project. So, uh with contingency, we thought we'd be be in a good shape. The bids came in pretty low. Uh we had three bids that were uh
done by three strong companies all coming in well below the the budgeted price. Um the low bid was from Capital Carpet and Flooring Specialists at $67,575. Uh the next highest was 68,585.
So very very close to each other. Um Capital Carpets we've worked before. They did the downstairs uh council on aging floors. Uh so this is well in their wheelhouse. Um I'm in touch with the company now and they intend to move
forward with the work. The contract does specify what date it would take place. So, it needs to be finished before school begins. Um, and they've indicated that they will be able to meet that date. So, um, we have a contract here for you tonight that the draft version and then in your signature folder,
there's a slightly different version. I just filled in the date of today and I filled in, uh, that the president of the organization, his name is in here now, but otherwise, it's the same that's in your packet. uh if you authorize signing that contract tonight, you can sign and then uh I'll compile the rest of the
contract with the signatures that we need from town council and the accountant and uh from Capital Carpet as well. Uh but we should be good to go on this contract. Any questions? No. No. I'm glad Capital Carpet came back because they did the downstairs and that was pretty satisfactory.
Yeah, they did a good job. So we can I'm I feel better knowing that we've done business with these people already once. Yeah. The next low bid was from a a local company that also would have been excellent. So, it's we're in good shape. Yeah. I have a motion. I'll make a motion to
approve Smith Academy floor replacement contract. Second. Second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Motion carries. And I do want to thank Andrew and I believe Connor worked on
this with Capital Carpet to get this contract done quickly. So the carpets could be done before school is open. So thank you. Yep. Relatively quick bid process. So that was good. Okay, we're still before six. So we'll
go to topic seven uh contract for owners project manager services at Hatfield Elementary School. This is the roof replacement and boiler replacement project. And we met with uh Kyle,
myself, and Andrew met with and discussed five various uh submitts and we interviewed two. So I don't know if you want to follow up with anything else. Yeah, our committee also uh consisted of Connor Driscoll. He couldn't make the the interviews but he he gave us his
feedback as well. Um so we're required under Mass General Law that if a project is above $1.5 million, we need to either appoint or hire an owner's project manager. Um given that we had a transition going on in DPW and and uh we didn't necessarily have um a natural fit
for a project manager on staff uh we decided to go the hiring route and we opened a a um qualifications based process to hire a owner's project manager. We had five very strong bids and as uh the chair was mentioning uh we decided to move forward with a bid from
uh PCA 360 LLC. uh the registers as being in need of mass, but they do work all over the state and beyond. They put an impressive uh presentation together and have a a good uh good project team that'll be able to work with us. Their prices were comparable to to the other folks who are considering. Um I think we
can potentially hold off on this contract. There's an important part of it which we don't have yet, which is what the total not to exceed amount of this contract will be. So, we're still waiting for the final figures from them. I sent them this as a draft and they'll be sending back uh the final their
version of the contract. So, uh we could uh we should probably hold on this and then if we do a special meeting again at some point should be able to vote on it then. Um the other thing you could do is is authorize signing of it for say an amount up to a certain level uh
impending no other major changes to the contract. But I'm also happy to wait. Well, if you feel the weight, that's fine. And actually, it might be ready when uh Luke meets with the contractor and that we could do both at the same time. That's certainly the hope. Yeah.
Okay. We'll move we'll move forward then. Unless there's any questions now on the drafts that I should be aware of as we're finalizing a draft contract. Do you guys have any questions? No. I guess my only question was I've never I mean how long has this firm been
in business? Uh that's a great question. Um I can't remember from their materials off the top of my head. Um they've been in business. Yeah. And they have had projects of this size before. I forget they they've done a lot of different projects. They've
done a lot of different roofs. They've done schools. They've they've they've been in business if I recall quite a few quite a few years. If you like, I can get you a copy of their proposal. That'd be helpful. Yeah. I just Yeah, that was just my only question. Making sure that it was someone who's qualified to handle a project of this magnitude.
Yeah. Don't feel comfortable with with their uh their resume. Sounds good. Some more projects. Okay. So, we'll hold off on that and move to topic eight, which is approval for lease financing for town vehicles.
This is another one where uh we won't have the the documents to to sign tonight, maybe by the end of the week. Um we had some updates to the the lease documents uh with with our lease company. Um and they'll be making those updates for us. Uh we've gone through
the process of uh getting the final quotes and deciding on the final vehicles that we'd like to move forward with. Uh the ones that were approved at at town meeting um or very similar vehicles. So, I made a list for you here of of what was approved and then what
we're planning on moving forward with and what the the cost is at this time. Um, and then I will also give to you once I have them the the final lease documents and the um the the quotes that we have from the vendors, but we're looking to be in pretty good shape. Um,
the vendors are on here. Um, we stayed mostly around or under uh the the the planned cost for these vehicles. Um the most significant one is we were looking at a Western Star dump truck before and we've gone ended up going with something that's a little more um suited to to the
work that's going on daily at the DPW 2026 Freight Liner M2 uh which has multiple bodies can be attached to it. It's a little more versatile as a vehicle. So that's going to come in below the 320 that we'd planned for before instead uh just under 300K. Um
the boom mower uh price also came in lower than was expected which is great. Um, and then we have a COA passenger van quote. Um, the two uh trucks for water and sewer, F350 and F450, and then a highway uh F550 one ton that we're
planning on um pursuing as well, which is already um already uh deliverable to us. It is it is uh at the lot already, which is great. So, we'll be able to get like a 7 to 10 day. We're still waiting for the We're still waiting for stuff for this, right?
Yes, exactly. We're still waiting for lease documents, so we don't have to sign anything today. Okay. And we don't have to uh make a motion today. Okay. And any questions on any of this because this was all approved at town meeting on on this stuff. So, yeah. Mhm. Yeah. All right. So, that's
the the town meeting vote gave us the ability to enter into a 5-year lease lease to own uh process. So, maybe the documents will be ready when we meet with the other stuff. Who knows? Things might work out uh just perfectly here. We'll see. be interesting to see how far out these these are for getting
in here. Yeah, it's a range. You know, one of them at least I think they quoted us like 8 to 10 months and then another one's going to be 8 to 10 days. So, there's a range. Well, since we're still have eight minutes before hearing uh topic nine,
maybe Marlo wants to come up to the microphone and introduce himself uh officially and I don't know if you want to say a few words. Uh, thank you. Can you hear me? All right. Uh, I just want to say that the the
first two days here has been nothing but phenomenal working with the town hall staff, working with the DPW staff. Um, everybody's been very welcoming. Uh, got a lot of paperwork done the last two days. Uh, I got a wonderful tour of the
town. Uh, thank you to the select board chair. Um, so I I've I've dove right in. Uh, a lot of lot of stuff, you know, I have experience with, but I just have to understand, you know, how Hatfield does things. Um, got the whole IT thing
straightened out. Um, whole new set of rules going back to Microsoft from Google and Greenfield. So, but I think I got a pretty good handle on that. Um, but I I did want to just say thank you to every all the staff and and uh and even the DBW staff bringing me up to
speed on on where things are at. I still have to track down two of the staff members and introduce myself, but uh uh I I think we're off to a good start here. Um and Luke, I'd be more than happy to join you with that contractor. Sounds great. It's one project I haven't really dove
into and read about a lot yet. So, I'd be happy to join you if you'd like me to. Yeah, we can discuss times y when we meet later this week. Thank you and welcome again. And while we're in DPW report, uh
we uh first topic was five group five project. We still have seven minutes. So what we did receive was the punch list and we have some updates from the punch list. I don't know if you guys
have had a chance to review that. I don't know if you have any com have any comments on the uh the process of the punch list at all. Um yes. So last week we sat down um with Tony and Brandon from the water department and
Dwayne from Highway, myself, Andrew um and we went over um the original punch list that we created as well as the punch list that was given that we uh updated last meeting with the reports from the residents. Um, we talked about
things that have been completed to a satisfactory level and then other things that are still in need of repair. Um, which is all documented on the sheet that you guys have in your packet. Um, today I was out with
uh Tony and Brandon and DPC and as part of that um the the grant to camera all the lines and stuff, we were able to take advantage of those monies and um and camera the the new sewer line and
find any issues that may have arose. So, there'll be a full report, I'm assuming, in the coming weeks or so um with the findings from that. So, um, you know, actively there's still a lot of active things that still need to be finished
and taken care of. Um, and so as, uh, as we move forward with discussions with dealers, we'll keep everyone apprised to what happens there. So, Andrew, do you have anything else? No, it's a good summary. So, um, we had sent this updated version after the
meeting from last week and haven't really gotten any edits on that yet. Um, I know CI is is working with with Giler on this. I've been coordinating this right with with CI and I think Giler may have been unaware of of uh some of our reactions to this, but um I'm sure that
we will get this figured out. Um, as you saw there there was a um uh I I did a I actually met with Marlene Mashonsky as well just to make sure that our our records on the project are up to date. Uh I went through all the financials and found that on the Gila
her contract we have about 4 $48,000 outstanding. So uh there'sund uh about $200,000 in retainage left on that contract. So um we'll make sure that that's paid when all the things in our punch list are complete. So that's the plan.
Well, thank you for doing that. Absolutely. Yeah, that's great. Um so they'll be finishing the camera work tomorrow. um which will be added to our file that goes in with all the rest of the streets from the town. So while they
were in town is important to take advantage of it and it gave us much better insight onto some of the goings on underground. So um but yeah, so we're just waiting back for Giler's response like Andrew said. So
okay, any more updates on the DPW report? Okay. See, pickle ball location. Was that these? I can go through pretty quickly. So, pickle ball location. I don't really have any updates, but there was a request from a resident uh um who works with the pickle ball, Julie uh Pocola, uh to ask us if we'd thought more about
her request earlier to uh consider the addition of pickle ball at the Elm Court facility or somewhere nearby. Uh, so I just wanted to make sure that we have that on our radar still since that is still a request from the community and we said that we would look at that with DPW. So we'll make sure to do that now
that we have Marlo on board. Uh, there's $400,000 that was set aside from CPA funds for pickle ball facilities somewhere. Um I don't know if thoughts on that have changed since we found kind of more um temporary solutions from
using school and town facilities and pickle ball but also uh we have this large pickle ball private facility coming in as well. So I don't know if that's changed any thoughts on whether those funds are still you know best allocated towards pickle ball but if we do want to try to use them we can think about if there's locations that make
sense. I I know where that the location they were talking about where that we have the new building and stuff and I've been over there a couple times and I'm not sure if it's going to fit in there and I I rather hold off and see what
Marlo comes up with down the road with a use for that area. What makes sense because there's a lot of it's already busy over there with a second building and some other stuff. So, I'm not sure it'll fit. And then there would be
security issues of because we have the gate locked. If you have DPW stuff in there and people coming in and out, that would be another concern. So, it might be a lot of different issues, but
I'm not positive. I guess we can hold off on that. With that being said, I think we'll it's 6:00 I can move to our hearing. So I will stop there on the pickle ball and we will move to our hearing on water
sewer rates. And before I open the hearing on water sewer rates, I do want to thank our subcommittee which I think was uh Luke uh Andrew Sean Barry and David Pickard.
I believe you guys all met and had David Kira and David Kier. Okay. So, thank you for your time and effort on helping us figure out our sewer water sewer rates. I don't know if David want Pickard. I picked on him earlier. I I put him on a
spot. I'm sorry for that, but thank you for your info. And uh I I'll let you make before I open a hearing. I'll let you make some comments. How's that sound? Yeah, I think I don't really have any precursor comments. We've been through this, you know, several times. I feel
like over the last three or four years, we've kind of like gotten a little closer to steady state in a good way on both sides. So, this year, I think the trend continued. I think we're kind of back almost to the point where we kind of want to be in terms of not only setting the rates, but budgeting and
being comfortable and seeing how things land. So, okay. So, I will open the hearing and and the process will be for public comment. So is anybody present present for co public comment? If nobody's present for public comment,
then I will close public comment and we'll move to discussion. Uh I don't know if you'd like to say something since you're on the committee or or Andrew on any comments on the water sewer rates. I'll I'll start just very briefly just
give a little bit of overview of of how we ended up in this place. Um, I think there were a few values that we led with. We want to make sure that we're absolutely covering uh the the budgeted amount this year. So, the budget kind of drives uh what the rates are, and that budget was approved at a town meeting.
Um, the increases uh were not uh incredibly significant for each department, but they both do need to cover uh increases in labor costs and um in number of cases supplies. And also when I went through the budget this year for water and sewer, there were a couple
lines that had historically been underfunded. Uh it's specifically for uh some funding for uh maintenance and in the cases of of uh breaks of being able to fix those. So while you never know exactly how much you need it, we had historically underfunded those. So we
brought that up to a certain amount. I think that that should serve us well in the future because it's a more accurate uh forecasting of what our budget will look like for both of those departments. So that was one item. The budget of course drives the costs there and and and drives uh what the rates need to be.
Uh the second piece was making sure we understood uh the impact of capital projects and debt uh on uh on this budget and setting the rates. And historically, uh, the general fund does pay for the the vast majority of the, uh, capital costs for water and sewer,
uh, departments. And that's a decision that's been made in the past, uh, and approved, you know, through town meeting votes, uh, and through our debt exclusion processes. Um, there are two projects, uh, one for water, one for sewer that are not covered by general fund debt. These are, uh, entirely paid for by enterprise fund debt. Uh, one is
for the gravity thickener up upgrades project for, uh, sewer. The other is for the water fil uh it was a water filtration plant uh uh project a small part of that uh that's paid for by um the enterprise account. So first piece
was was just the overall budget. Second piece was debt and then the third piece was this question of where do we want to land on retained earnings and bringing up our retained earnings to have a greater uh proportion of the annual budget is just a helpful thing to have for these enterprise accounts so that if
something unexpected does happen uh you build some kind of rainy day fund you build some kind of uh contingency plan for if there's large projects that need to be funded immediately we're in a much healthier budget uh position for that. So those were the three things we kind of led with. And once you answer those
questions about how much uh capital um normal operating costs and um and contingency uh retained earnings you have the rates kind of come together pretty quickly after that and we landed in a place that I think is a responsible
increase that puts the department in in a good position for both water and for sewer. Thank you for the explanation. Far better than I could have put it together. But nice. Uh, any more comments from my colleagues? No, I understand it.
I mean, it's always been tough in this town. We've always been behind the curve on raising the water sewer rates to maintain our costs for operation costs and the maintenance costs and salaries and and unfortunately there's a lot of
costs that we don't have control over which are the electricity cost and and buying parts and and type of stuff like that. So, uh, I don't know if anybody else wants to make a comment from the committee. I don't know if David wants
to say anything or I think we talked a lot about a lot of things. I think one of the things that we've talked about finance is um what percentage of the of the stuff comes from the users and what percentage comes from the residents because the residents
often make comments about why are they some residents who don't have access to sewer why are they paying part of the sewer bill every year even though they don't get any real benefit out of it. So something to keep in mind. Um, and
another thing that we talked about and Dave advised, you know, against what but uh in other other towns as I've learned more about this is we just have a regular resident resident and uh
agricultural rate. Other towns have commercial rates, they have municipal rates. It might be something to look at down the down the line um of of a tiered sort of uh system. Not that we have all this commercial business out there, but
you know, we do have some. And should they pay a little bit more of the bill than than the residents do? That that's what it typically is in other places would that have something like that. I know the argument also on the other side is for the non sewer users, the the
whole purpose of purpose of the sewer line is to get businesses to come in. And if businesses come in, they won't come in unless they have a sewer line. and that offsets the tax rate. So it does it does benefit the whole town it
in a way. So there is there is a argument to be made will generate more more businesses coming to town generate more fees. I know that one of the last minute things that happened was that Brockway decided that well they not Brockway anymore they're Boisey Cascade
or whatever they are now is is hooking up to the sewer and so that's going to be another large user um which can only help uh as you know I know we've had over the years a lot of inquiries on five and 10 and once they
found out there wasn't a sewer line they said nope but you know it's always in this town maintaining our farmland but also bringing in businesses to to maintain our tax rate, offset our tax rate. So, and the next piece is take that same
project that we went south with and take it and go north. Right. That's somehow some way whether we get you know get that process started with a design uh you know of some kind to so that you know you have an idea of what something like that's going to cost because you're looking at millions and millions and
millions of dollars uh to do something like that. So certainly not on the backs of the taxpayers, but certainly on the backs of hopefully, you know, different kinds of mass works and things like that that are out there possibly. Any other comments?
Um, just to echo what Andrew said, one of the things that we all marked as a top priority is getting both of the um water and sewer funds split and both bolstered up pretty heavily. Um and then like two days after the meeting we had
the sewer main break on Main Street. So it really kind of proved the point. Um but yeah so so that is something that we put a lot of priority in. Um and so some of this rate increase is to try to get those those retained earnings balances
up. So um just make sure the public's aware of that. Mhm. I'll just add, you know, the the one variable we can't control or know going into budgeting is how much water people are going to use, right? So last year and even to an extent the year before
consumption was down. So when consumption goes down, it's, you know, inversely directional with with the unit cost. So we're banking on this FY26 to be similar to 25. I think it's probably a pretty fair bet based on what we've seen so far this summer. People are
probably going to use a decent amount of water. Um, but you know, each year we just, you know, find fine-tune the dial. And to your point, there's nothing wrong with looking at different rate structures. In my experience, learning the hard way, many times, trying to make compound changes is when we get in
trouble. So, when we make, you know, two changes with the big dial. So, what we're trying to do now is just make maybe one change with the big dial and then just take the small dial and and fine-tune it. Uh because sometimes you you make changes thinking something's going to happen and then users do
something different and then at the end of the year you're sweating. I'm sweating. So and speaking of that small dial, so there is an increase this year in the agricultural rate. That's something we had held off on in past years. Uh there's a desire to try to get that agricultural rate to closer to around
half of the residential rate. I think that's, you know, easier to explain and it's and it's understandable why it would be set there. So we're making some progress towards that that number for this year. We're not quite there yet, but makes progress. And just and to build on that, um other
surrounding towns have equal funded agriculture or equal rates for both a and rez. Um Hadley being one of them. So, uh we thought that 50% is is is pretty fair. Um, and then that way once
we get to that 50% mark, everything will just change in accordance after that point. So, this gets us a little closer to that number. It's not quite there, but rather than doing one big one big jump, we felt it was better to do it a couple steps. So, don't feel too bad. You're more than
fair with that agricultural rate. You've done a good job protecting the farmers, but there aren't many of those separate rates out there anymore to your point, Luke. Yeah. Any other comments? No. I thank I thank you all for your comments. I think it's it's good to try
to explain to the taxpayers why there's increases and and it I mean it's painful for everybody, but it's it's a reality. So, do I have a motion on this? I'll make a motion to approve the water sewer rate setting as presented.
Second. Motion made. Motion seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? I I then will close the hearing on the water sewer rates. Motion is done. So, thank you. Thank you, Dave.
Thank you, David. We will go back to topic nine. There's still uh a park bench donation. Yeah, this is um just something I wanted to check in with you on uh quickly since it it's the first time I've uh dealt with this in town and
want to know if anyone had a procedure for this. Uh so there was an interest from a local resident uh to donate a park bench. This would be in Smith Academy Park uh and be in honor of of the resident's father. Um, so this is
just something that I wanted to go over to make sure that um, based on the location, is this an area where we'd want another bench? Is this something where we'd ask for the full cost of the bench to be uh, uh, taken care of by the resident? Um, if so, what would we think of as a maintenance plan? Your benches
typically last between five and 10 years. What would happen after that point? Um, and then is this something where we'd want like a plaque on it and would resident pay for that as well? So, just curious if we had a procedure for this. If we don't, I'm happy to help put one together. Well, since I've been on the board, I do
not recall any donations coming, but I would assume that uh if there's a donation, then the board would have to accept it. And I don't know what the I I remember the last time there was park benches,
there were people that they paid for the park benches located with a name. And so there was some kind of policy prior to uh getting on the board. So it has occurred and I and I think there's been donations over the years like to the
fire department or to other organizations. So I I don't find it an unusual thing and I'm assuming that a donation is if the board accepts it then is this something that the board would be comfortable you know moving forward
at least in discussions with the resident and just find out what they like to do. Absolutely. I think the biggest point for me would be to make sure that it matches the style and construction of the other benches that are already existing.
Right. Yeah. I don't know how the other ones got to be there. I'd assume it was part of the rest of the project. But yeah, but I mean what what the process was to get those there and how it how that happened. Great. And then the only other cost to consider
would be there would be some level of site work that would be required like all the other ones sit on a concrete pad, right? um if the don the person looking to make the donation if they would be paying for that site development or is that
something that the town would then have to y have the DPW do or something like that. So but that's a conversation to have with them but great good all right so if you're comfortable moving forward with that I'll update you at the next meeting on just what that looks like and get that approved.
I'd like that. Perfect. Okay. Um personnel um couple quick updates. So the first is that in your um folder tonight there is a wage form for Marlo
Warner. Um while he has a contract, we did also need to just get that that form approved. I assume we need a vote on that, but it's really nothing you haven't already approved by approving of this contract. Um so you can take care of that. Um just on the personnel side
as you know um Garrett Barry's last day with town was uh June 20th and uh Dwayne has been serving as interim superintendent. Just want to say that he's been doing a strong job so far. Um I've not yet posted the position of of superintendent uh just to give us time
to work through this transition of bringing new director on board. But uh we're planning on on doing that shortly if if that's sounds good to the the board still. And again, it's it will be the hire of the um of the uh director and then the select board will will sign
off on that. That sounds right. Okay. I don't know if you had anything else to add on that, Marlo. Working on it. Diving in like to get the the uh the department organized first. Um you know, that position is really important. Uh I know it's 90 something
degrees out, but before you know it, we'll be hooking up plows. So, I think it's all important to to have the staff set and, you know, put everything into place. So, we should be hearing something from myself and Andrew in the next day or two.
Okay. Good. Uh, so that takes up that issue or we don't have to vote on any on that or do we have to vote on the last item? I already You've already been you've already approved it by approving the contract. need to vote on it. I
think so. I'll move to topic 10, town administrator report. Oh, David, something. Sorry. Um, I was just thinking about something that I was informed by one of our people here. We never uh stated what the new sew water sewer rates were going to be.
I don't know if that's an important number to share with everybody that uh you know, it was this, it's going up to this, and it was that, it's going up to that. I don't know if that's something that's important or not. you should put it in uh put it at least on the record for tonight's meeting or whatever on the
Okay, I'll read it. So, under the Hatfield sewer rates and this is rate per 100 cubic feet, uh the second half of billing was $13.87 87
and their proposal for 2026 is $14.98. Uh under Hatfield Water customers rate per 100 cubic feet. The 2025 second half billing was $7.7 per 100 cubic feet and the 2026 proposal
is $749 per HCF. And for Hatfield Water customers, agricultural weight, uh, FY2025 was $327 and that's going up to $347.
And thank you for bringing that up. Even though, and this has been posted on Facebook page and posted on our web page, too. So, if you've forgotten what I've said, just go to our website and you'll see it on the website. So thank
you David. Okay. So topic 10. Uh committee updates. Town administrator report. So town administrator report. I'm trying something different for you tonight and I I'd like to be doing this more often, but putting together a report for you
that I can also then share with the public. So it's a helpful thing to have. But I went through uh projects, grants, that DW update and then uh committee updates as well. So committee sides on the the second page here. Uh there's three committees that that you've appointed me to and I just want to give
you very brief updates on all three of those. We have the opioid settlement funds task force ad hoc committee uh that will make recommendations on how to use the settlement funds uh for combating the opioid crisis. Uh they ran a successful survey with uh 120
responses um give or take. I think it was a little more than that. um and got a lot of good feedback about uh what the strategies that the town is interested uh in us using those funds for uh uh to address the opioid crisis. They are
putting together a detailed report that that they would like to present uh as soon as at your next meeting. So in August we'll come forward with a report. That should be great. Uh and then either at that meeting or at a future one, they'll also bring in like a draft budget of an idea of what they'd like the funds to be used on so we can get
started with that, which is exciting. Uh we have a bylaw review committee that's been meeting um every two to three weeks for the last couple months. Uh like board member Gagman's a part of that. Uh that's been a good process. We've met with a number of uh boards, commissions,
and departments in the town to get their takes on what sorts of things might need to be addressed uh in the bylaw review process. Um and around now, based on the schedule that we wanted to put together, uh we're in the process of putting together all those those changes, compiling them, and starting to make
some recommendations. We're also going to compare across other towns bylaws and think about, you know, is there anything big picture that we're really missing here? Uh so that should be ready uh for some public presentations uh in the fall uh with a plan of trying to bring those
proposed bylaw changes to town meeting next May. And then the comprehensive plan implementation committee held its first meeting uh in June. We'll meet again in July and August. It's a good first meeting. Uh reviewed the comprehensive plan and talked about uh some of the different buckets of uh
recommendations that it had. And what we want to do is try to put a more detailed timeline together thinking about what the next few years we want to try to address and who will be responsible for that and how do we communicate that out uh and how do we kind of drive that progress. So it was a good meeting. It
was a really helpful reminder for me of some of the things in the plan that I don't necessarily think about every day. Um and uh I'm looking forward to seeing that that progress continue. So that's committee updates. Um, I said I'd talk about Oh, any any questions on any of those committees?
Great. Um, projects we talked about Smith Academy carpets. We talked about the elementary school with the OPM side. Uh, we're working as well on putting the the bid for the boilers together, the bid documents and the um we want to start putting together the bid uh
documents for uh the design for the roof. Uh, our OPM will help with that considerably. Uh we also of course have the funds to do the um repaving of the parking lots at Smith Academy, Happy Elementary School, and uh at Billings
Way. Uh so we're putting those uh specifications together, and we'll kind of lean on the the OPM for their take on if it makes more sense to wait at the elementary school uh until the roof project is done. A little bit of concerned about um you know, trucks working on the roof with the new black
top or anything else might make more sense to wait for the year after. So they'll help us figure out the sequencing of that project um as we put together u those if you if you wait would the costs increase? It's it's possible the cost will increase but also I'm worried about the
risk of of working on those those uh lots with with uh if they were just done with with heavy equipment. So it's something to think about. All right, we'll look at it either way. And it's also possible that we could get better bids if we, you know, try not to squeeze it in this season if if folks have
already lined up their projects for this summer. So, um, we'll we'll try to get some some good advice on the best uh process to take here, but that's where we're at. Well, I mean, if they do the parking lot, they could tell us if the heavy trucks the way they're doing is going to
cause could cause any damage or anything. Yeah. No, they definitely could. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, unless they take over the whole project and they do one later like next year or whatever. Whatever you guys No, no, no. That all makes sense. Those
are important considerations. Um and then we already talked about route five, so we're all set on that. And then on uh grants, we're kind of in the waiting stage right now for most things. I have a uh grant update uh that was in your packet as well, the late
packet um that goes through some of the grants that we've applied for and and received um or are waiting on. So the one stop for community growth includes uh a number of economic development and housing related grants. Uh we applied for mass works funding that would help with that design for expanding of the
utilities of the water sewer lines uh for uh the northern part of Route 5 as was talked about. We also applied for a grant that would um help us uh with uh zoning uh and planning assistance. So thinking about uh implementing some of the ideas for the comprehensive plan in
updating our zoning. Uh then I applied for a municipal ADA improvement grant. Uh we'll find out about that in the fall. And uh we had applied for the uh MVP, municipal vulnerability preparedness program. That was the the project um with the ditch mapping. So
we'll find out if we received that. I'm hoping we did. And then the only there aren't many that are open at the very moment. Um, we should look at the next round of the green communities grants. We are a green community. We can always look at if there's energy efficiency or other related projects to make sense for
us to apply for. And then I don't believe that we're currently in the complete streets program. So it could make sense to look at if there's any projects that would make sense to drive forward uh if we joined that program as well. Uh so that's a a state project where um
if you adopt a complete streets policy and you put together an impleation plan of streets where you can improve um both pedestrian and and biking and uh public transportation and vehicle access. Um you can get construction
funds uh for doing renovations at any priority intersections or areas. So, it could potentially help with funding new sidewalks, could help help with uh other things we want to do in town. So, if we put together that prioritization plan, I know there's been
something on on the uh internet with the state approving some kind of funding for rural communities for dirt roads and stuff. So, I don't know if the state has sent any information on that cuz you like Straits Road or something like that
whether we could get funding for uh from the state because they're going to be targeting specifically small communities or rural communities and dirt roads. So, I remember reading something about So, if you hear something about that, let us know.
Definitely. We haven't district two yet, but because I I think the funding just got approved recently, right? I'm not mistaken. So, I feel like they haven't released the uh they haven't released the actual program guidelines on that yet, but we'll look
out for that and get back to you for sure. Okay. And I know uh sometimes Maya has funding for different stuff, but I don't know what they have available. Yeah, Maya does have a uh safety grants program that uh is open every calendar
year. So, that is open now. Uh there's $10,000 at least that would be available to us for things we want to apply for. That money can go quickly. Um we actually had a request from the DPW to look into uh purchasing a um guard rail uh mower, which would be a lot easier to
use for our staff. It's only around $7,000. It would save a lot of a lot of work that our uh seasonals do. So, I think the safety grant would probably support that um because it's much better for um safety of our of our workers. So, that might be something to explore if
the board's interested in us doing that. Yeah. Nice. Definitely. Anything with safety is great. Yeah. Yeah. It could be a good good purchase. Great. All right. So, that's it from for my update. Um unless board has anything
else you want me to be looking into. Um colleagues any comments or I'm good good update. Thank you. Great. All right we'll go to topic 11. So last time we had done a brief conversation about um setting goals for
FY26. Um want to keep this on the agenda. um if the board has any thoughts about u particular goals that they they had, whether those are just kind of one-off items that try to finish or larger projects we want to try to think about. I'm happy to take those and I can turn
it into a more comprehensive document. I can keep this on the agenda for next time to keep talking through as well, but if you have any thoughts on that tonight, happy to take some. Okay. So, I I've submitted you some of my yep ideas. So, uh, you guys can submit him your ideas and then we'll go
through the list and we'll try to prioritize or decide whether they make sense or not make sense or whatever. I kept finding myself echoing a lot of the goals that were outlined in the comprehensive plan when I was sitting
down and making my list. Um, so I think and I'm would imagine that some of the things that are on your guys' lists as well probably are on that. So I think it would be helpful if we get the um the report back from the implementation committee as well and see how everything
aligns on that rather than start with your own stuff. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So and it's it's a lot better to be coordinated with everything. Yes. Yeah. I agree. I I think that that plan is more important than anything because that's been worked on for a long time
and it's it's a really great plan. Just just getting forward with that, right? I think they thought of everything already pretty much. Nice. So, I know there was uh when we did this covert, they the state has a covert program. Mhm.
Uh for inserts and stuff, but it's you have to apply. There's no guarantee you get it and that's it's a process and they actually review part of that plan is reviewing all your culverts and giving assessment to the the town. So
whether that's a worthwhile grant for this town or not, you guys can if you get a shot and take a look at it and and see, I guess, cuz that would save a few dollars cuz this last culbert, I forgot what we
what did we pay for this last covert? It was was I think around $240,000 special meeting. So yeah. So that was a large covert. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. So,
I guess that should cover unless you guys have any unfinished business. I do not. With that being said, do I have a motion? I make a motion we second. All in favor?
I I motion carries. We just have to sign all these things here.